Re: Winter Wheels

Ah, ahead of the curve!

Gotta admit, the Winter set for the Tahoe doesn`t get anything It`s a set of Machined-finish GMC wheels and they stay nice enough with just Wheel Cleaner. Eh, they`re not all that great anyhow, were the cast-offs from the Yukon I used to have (put a new set on that one, kept the old ones for Winter).

BUT...now you`ve got me thinking I need to get on the Winter wheels for the A8, failed to do `em back in the Spring

Re: Winter Wheels

Accumulator

The Blizzaks I have are sport tires made for performance cars, they are outstanding, picked them up at Firestone and they matched the prices of TireRack, total time to do the wheels, from wash, apc sprayed, and in a few spots used Wheel Brighter to remove some tough spots, dried with Master Blaster, dried again, then panel wiped and applied Mckee`s Paint Coating outside and barrels, 3.5 hours waiting for them to cure and will place in wheel covers

Anything in life worth doing is worth over doing, moderation is for cowards

Re: Winter Wheels

Above and beyond there, lol. We just run steelies with no hubcaps. It does look a little goofy going from 18" low pro to base model 16" steels. Not even going to mention the nagging TPMS light with the absence of the sensors.

Re: Winter Wheels

atgonzales- That sounds like 3.5 hours well-spent to me! Do your Bilzzaks look OK without any dressing? All of mine do...nice to be able to just skip that. Yeah, I`ve always liked Blizzaks, but some of mine are pretty old and I bet they have even better ones these days.

Nizmo- Can`t you run the sensors on your steelies? What kind of sensors does yours take? I only have TPMS on the Crown Vic and it uses the regular Ford Band-style ones.

Heh heh, I never minded running (uncovered) steelies in the winter, did that on a few vehicles. Figured it looked like I knew from Winter Driving (and IMO keeping them really nice helped with that). Used Collinite on them IIRC, didn`t want to waste KSG and this was before I discovered FK1000P let alone coatings.

Re: Winter Wheels

atgonzales- Ah, wonder if I`ll end up dressing mine when I finally get newer ones... Hey, I`m using the Pinnacle too! Had two (very) old jugs on the shelf and !Gee! I really like it! Hadn`t even thought about it for ages, forgot all about it as it didn`t play nice with an interior I tried it on (~16 years ago!), but on the tires I`ve tried it on recently I think it`s great.

Re: Winter Wheels

Just getting my winter wheels ready too. I am most likely getting new winter tires this year but I did a D143 (well, hot rims OTC) clean up when I removed them in the spring. Today I hit them with Iron-X and scrubbed every nook and cranny, rinsed, D143 scrubbed wheels and tires, rinsed again, degreased the hub area, rinsed.

In the coming days I`ll be hitting with Menzerna PF2500 or SF4000 (not sure yet), then Eraser, then GTechniq C5 Wheel Armor on outside, barrels, rear of spokes - everywhere.

Then I`ll be getting a set of probably either Hakkapeliitta R2s or Pilot Alpin PA4s to mount and balance. Haven`t decided yet. Hopefully the balance weights will stick OK on the C5.

Re: Winter Wheels

Surly- How`re you gonna decide on the snowtires? Like...what`re the criteria you`re considering.

I had to get Dunlops for the S8 (silly waste, only used `em once before deciding I wasn`t driving that in the salt any more ) because its Stability Control (which I almost alyways turn off anyhow) isn`t Blizzak/etc.-friendly.

And OK...I`ll ask...why coat `em before the mounting/balancing? I`d think that just the mounting might compromise the coating in places.

Re: Winter Wheels

Blizzak has lot of different versions of their tire, take a look at TireRack, do the coating after the mount and balance more then likely there will glue from the weight you will need to remove before coating

Anything in life worth doing is worth over doing, moderation is for cowards

Re: Winter Wheels

Yeah, if reusing the same wheels the adhesive from the old weights will need to come off..be sure to DIY that as the shops don`t always take the proper care, even when they (the local Michelin franchise no less) say they will.

Re: Winter Wheels

When I had my wheels done I took pics before, took the manger out and both inspected them together and told him I was picky and i have no damage to my wheels and he agreed and understood exactly what I meant

Anything in life worth doing is worth over doing, moderation is for cowards

Re: Winter Wheels

Heh heh, glad he cared...the guy at my local Michelin store simply stared at me and shrugged it off as "sometimes that happens" (this was a screwdriver-gouge so severe that it actually cut my finger, on a previously *perfect* wheel). It was one of those cases where he knew I couldn`t do anything about it and didn`t mind losing my future business. I should`ve known better but they were the only local solution to a flat that needed fixed *immediately*...they had previously *turned down* the chance to sell me four new Michelins for the Crown Vic (Pilots, a >$1000 sale) when I warned them that "I`m pretty particular about my car`s finish, so I don`t want anybody touching the paint"; he said straight-out "You should probably just get your tires elsewhere".

Re: Winter Wheels

On choosing tires - well. I`m honestly waffling on how "severe" to go. In the greater Toronto area, a snowstorm is usually heavy wet snow, rain and freezing rain - not 2 feet of fluff. Sometimes the mercury plunges really cold, other times we hover above and below freezing for weeks. All of the winter tires I`ve had in the past, both "performance winter tires" and "full winter tires" have always had some kind of glaring negative beyond the obvious.

Examples:
- My Arctic Alpins had no `high speed` control. Above 50-55mph they had ballooned so much they did not feel safe, wet dry or otherwise
- My Dunlop WinterSport M3s solved the above problem, but had NO winter traction after the first couple of months. Lots of treads depth but all of the sipes rounded off leaving me nothing
- My Hakkapeliitta RSis acted like there was oil all over the road if it was wet and the temp was above 5C or so. Never found another owner with the same complaint, but every time a front went through with a "warm" rain component they were dangerous. Overall I`d say our winters weren`t severe enough for the Hakkas
- (My SO got Hakka R2s on her van and loved them - no hint of my complaints)
- My Blizzak WS60s actually had no major negative now that I think of it, other than only having "magic" tread compound for a few 32nds of an inch.
- My current Dunlop 3Ds exhibit a disproportionate lack of braking ability in various winter conditions and temperatures. It isn`t all the time, but I have often noticed that while exploring available grip, accelerating and turning has dramatically more grip than braking. They also got noisy very quickly in the wear cycle.

So right now my short list is Hakka R2 for "full" winter and PA4s for "performance" winter. Maybe I should put WS80s on the list...

On the coating - I`m dealing with a very large and complex fall todo list and I was planning to coat in the nice weather any time now and `git-r-done`. I`ll think about re-ordering my process.